Thursday, July 30, 2009

Here is my first tutorial, and it happens to be on avocado peeling. Which, in reality, occurs more from the inside-out rather than the outside-in, as you would be lead to believe by the term 'peeling'. Regardless, our finished product is the flesh of the fruit without a pit or peel. This is a great project for a taco night, when you need to add fresh guacamole to your repertoire (and thus, need to peel lots of avocados). You will need a large knife, a spoon, and the obligatory avocado for this project. To begin, hold the fruit in the palm of your hand with the narrow end at 12 o'clock and the wider end at 6 o'clock. Carefully, press the knife vertically into the fruit until the blade stops at the pit. Rotate and separate the fruit to create two equal halves. (You may need to gently turn the halves in opposite directions to loosen the fruit from the pit.)Now comes the fun (read dangerous and thrilling) part. If you do it the right way, all of your friends will say, 'ooh,' and 'aah,' if you do it the wrong way, they may ask, 'where do you keep the band-aids?' or 'which way to the nearest ER?' I must caution you to err on the side of too little effort, rather than risking injury with too much effort. Gently, but swiftly, embed the mid-section of the knife blade into the pit of the fruit. (You won't be able to push the knife in, it is really more of a 'hack'...a gentle, safe 'hack', that is.) After a few attempts, you will discover the amount of effort required to lodge the blade firmly into the pit of the avocado. The trick is to get the blade to stop approximately half way through the pit. Too far, and the pit cuts in half and the little trick doesn't work. Too shallow into the pit, and the outer layers of the pit will break off during the next step...and that is essentially like stripping a screw. Once you have perfected the science of gently, but firmly hacking your knife's way into the pit of your avocado, the rest is the proverbial piece of cake. Rotate your knife (as though it were the hands on a clock), until the pit becomes dislodged from the flesh of the fruit. Gently push the pit off of the knife (remember it is pretty well stuck on there, you may have to push firmly). Always push away from the blade. A little pinch behind the pit will usually work. Without cutting through the skin of the avocado, score it in slices or cubes (depending on how you are serving the avocado).Then, take a large spoon (my soup spoons are the perfect size) and slide it between the peel and the flesh of the fruit. Scoop out any remaining morsels of fruit that are usable for your purpose, then discard the skin. You now have a peeled avocado, with very little waste, and nary a mess to be found. (That is of course unless you were a little gung-ho on the hacking part, and you left the avocado and knife on the counter while you made your trip to the ER!) All that's left is to enjoy the 'fruit' of your labor in your favorite salad, guacamole, or all by itself. mmm....

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

One colloquialism I find really entertaining is, "the wedding went off without a hitch." If there's no hitch, are they really married at the end?!? Last weekend I provided hors d'oeuvres for 50 of a special couple's closest friends and family. Here are some photos of the buffet.

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Our family loves to spend time at the pool. They have a great kids' play area with hoses, buckets, rope ladders and slides. They also have a concession stand. My husband is crazy about their french fries. He will make sure to have his $1.25 in order before we get in the car to head to the pool. Last night, he ate two batches. Of course, each one was consumed alongside copious amounts of ketchup. I'm fairly certain that these are your garden variety frozen crinkle cut spuds, which begs the question...what is it about the fries? I'd like to think that I have a slightly more sophisticated palate. My favorite fries are at AT&T Park (formerly Pac Bell Park) in San Francisco. They are the famous garlic fries...served with chunks of freshly crushed garlic. They are so garlicky, you're likely to smell them in the air when you arrive at the stadium, and on your breath a week after cheering your team on to victory. Now, those are some yummy fries! Perhaps the thing that makes food taste so good is the circumstance surrounding its consumption...summer vacation, a victorious ball game, a family gathering, etc. I hope you have a chance to share some good food with great company over the next few weeks.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

So, I'm sitting back, watching St. Louis show off its new Busch Stadium (and NL MVP Albert Pujols!) in the 2009 All Star Game, thinking about some All Star foods from St. Louis. Perhaps the oldest and most recognized consumables native to St. Louis are the bubbly adult beverages from Anheuser Busch. The AB brewery was started waaaay back in 1860, and is still a St. Louis icon! A few foods made popular in the Louisiana Purchase Exposition (a.k.a. the St. Louis Worlds Fair) in 1904 are: Dr. Pepper, iced tea, hot dogs, hamburgers, peanut butter, cotton candy, and waffle cones (for ice cream). More recently, St. Louis favorites have come to include toasted ravioli, gooey butter cake, and crunchy-thin-crust pizza (of course, topped with provel cheese). What's the only way you can make these specialties any better? Make them chocolate, of course!

Saturday, July 11, 2009

I am a list person. I keep lists of everything. 'To do', 'To make', 'Bills', etc. I am just shy of the lists of lists (except for the brief example above!) kind of person. I have a computer program which will generate a shopping list from my menus for the week, or any given event, and I love, love, love it!

Well, this week is a big week as far as grocery shopping goes...baby shower on Saturday, wedding reception on Sunday, and a family to feed in the meanwhile. So, I entered all of the things I'll be making this week from turkey sandwiches at lunchtime to cheesecake for one of the events desserts. The computer generated list is 3 pages and 100 items long! The beauty of it is this: the computer has arranged the list according to departments in the grocery store. I had better get started!

Thursday, July 9, 2009

West County Assembly of God Church Wednesday Family Night Out Dinners are open to anyone, provided you have made reservation. Please email Ellen in the church office to do so. All adult meals include an entree, side, vegetable and/or salad, and dessert. Children's entrees are often available and junior-sized adult meals are available each week. The costs are $5 per adult (over age 12) and $2 per child (ages 3-11, children aged 2 years and under are free). First time visitors will receive complimentary meals as guests of the church (please make a reservation). Meals are served each Wednesday from 5:45-6:15PM.

Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Although my fellow shoppers at Homegoods were well aware that the excursion was not among my toddler-daughter's list of favorite-things-to-do-today, they may not have known that it is one of my all time favorite places to pick up odds and ends for the kitchen. I shopped for all of ten minutes, and fully eight of them were spent trying to console and shush my sobbing kiddo. But, all of you with toddlers know, shopping must be quick and to the point (no meandering allowed)...so the two minutes were productive, and I found the perfect plates! I'll post pictures when I dress them up with some delectables after the wedding reception next weekend.Another favorite is an online party supply site, Smarty Had a Party. I love all of the unique disposable (but washable and reusable) party ware. I ordered some square plastic shot glasses this morning. And the part that I think is the best, is they are based in St. Louis, so to forgo the shipping, I am going to go to the warehouse to pick up my order (and perhaps get a few more ideas while I'm there!). Here's hoping all of your shopping is a little less eventful than mine!

Monday, July 6, 2009

Just in case you think I may have tried a fabulous new recipe for dinner, and want you all to do the same, my new venture today was in the realm of computer-speak...not food! My kiddo and I re-heated leftovers for dinner (gasp!), and I was determined to enhance your experience while viewing my blog. If you would kindly take a moment and locate the lovely links (Gallery, Experience, Menu, Reservations) at the top of my blog (immediately under the 'header' if you want to be technical about it), you will know what consumed the free portion of my day. I must say a huge thanks to the author of bloggersentral.blogspot.com for translating the thought into HTML. And for those of you who cannot believe that I did it alone...you're right. I had just about everything set, except for one little snag, and my hubby comes home and says, 'you have to remove the /*'. Done and done. Thanks, honey.

In order to reserve a date for your event, a signed Catering Agreement and a non-refundable date reservation fee of one thousand dollars ($1000) or 50% of your estimated total (whichever is less) are due. Once your food, beverage and other event details are finalized, I will provide you with a final amount due.

For more information or to arrange a tasting, please email me (Carrie Roberts) at: PinkPeppercornCatering(at)gmail(dot)com.

Each of my clients have different tastes, styles, and menu needs, and in order to truly capture the essence of your event, we will build a menu for your special occasion. The lists below contain suggestions, or menu-starters...the possibilities are nearly limitless!Appetizers:

pink peppercorns

distinctively sweet and peppery

a little background

Based in West St. Louis County, Pink Peppercorn Catering & Events will help you create a delightful and elegant culinary experience for your next event...a dinner party with a few friends or a reception for hundreds.

"Once again, I just wanted to tell you how wonderful the food was for our party. Everyone loved it. The presentation was beautiful." ~ Theresa

"Thank you so much for the amazing job you did today. We couldn't have asked for things to go any more smoothly, and everyone loved the food! There is no way I can adequately express my gratitude for all you have done to make [the] wedding reception so wonderful. You have gone above and beyond anything I ever expected." ~ Lois

"Thank you so much for catering our luncheon [and] giving our family such a wonderful memory." ~ Mikki

Thanks for reading my blog. I hope you find it entertaining and enlightening. If you find yourself planning a wedding reception, birthday or holiday party, special family occasion, or corporate event; I hope you will consider Pink Peppercorn for your catering and event coordination needs. It would be my pleasure to help you create a very special event!~ Carrie